Puttin' on the Hits
Puttin' on the Hits was a music/variety competition show that featured amateur acts lip-synching to popular songs. Gameplay Contestants would often dress up in costumes and use props to make their act more outrageous. This varied from a seemingly servered head singing "I Ain't Got Nobody" to an Aretha Franklin drag act using couch cushions for breasts. Other acts were more conservative and placed emphasis on performance. The competition as it was conducted as many other televised performance contest (e.g. Star Search) were. Each act was judged by a panel of celebrity judges based on their appearances, song choice and lip-synch ability with a total of 90 points being the maximum value an act could score. to achieve that, an act would have to receive 10 points in each of the three categories from all three judges. The act with the highest score at the end of the show won $1,000. They also advanced to the semi-finals, worth $5,000, and after that the season-ending championship show (dubbed as the "Grand Final") worth $25,000 to the winning act. Trivia The show's title is a parody of the 1929 Irving Berlin (and later covered by Taco in 1983) song Puttin' on the Ritz. The show grew out of lip-syncing contests created and developed by Wm. "Randy" Wood, who in 1982 had realized that his contest had grown so popular that he needed to stage them on a national scale. The planning process eventually grew into Puttin' on the Hits, which he served as consulting producer. Allen Fawcett, veteran soap actor (The Edge of Night & General Hospital) and Broadway star (Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), wrote and hosted the four year hit series which produced 134 half hour shows.'' Chris Bearde (best known for creating ''The Gong Show alongside Chuck Barris) and Dick Clark (best known for hosting Pyramid and creating Greed, among other things) were both the executive producers of the series. Dick Clark's son, Richard A. Clark produced the show while MCA-TV served as the distributor. The show has been credited with launching the careers of the 1990's R&B group Troop and Jazzmun, a drag performer who can been seen in many contemporary television shows. Kato Kaelin (best known for being a witness during the infamous 1994-1995 O.J. Simpson trial) was once a contestant on the show's third season performing the 1967 song "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf. Trade Ads Puttin'_on_the_Hits_1984_ad.jpg Puttin' on the Hits Fall '84 ad.jpg Puttin on the hits ad.jpg POTH_'86.jpg Puttin' on the Hits '85 promo ad.jg.JPG POTH'87.jpg Puttin'_on_the_Hits_Blurb_1.jpg Puttin'_on_the_Hits_blurb_2.jpg POTH_'88_ad.jpg POTH-Poster.JPG|POTH poster signed by R.A. Clark given to Wm Randy Wood|link=www.americaslipsyncstar.com Coors-Lt-ALSS.JPG|Coors Light Lip Sync Talent Search sposorship to promote POTH ALSS-Blackbox-Photo-2.jpg|New Marketing Materials for Americas Lip Sync Star National Search Print Ad $(KGrHqZ,!lgFBl2pYfnYBQdJt4KP,g~~60_3.jpg Inventor Randy Wood Rating Similar Shows Puttin' on the Kids Lip Service Great Pretenders Lip Sync Battle Americas Lip Sync Star YouTube Links 80's Puttin' on the Hits TV Commercial Puttin' on the Hits 1985 The Blues Brothers Troy Pennington Category:Music Category:Reality Category:Comedy Category:Variety Category:Big Prize Category:Bizarre Category:Syndicated shows Category:NBC Universal Television Category:Long-Running Category:30 Minute Game Shows Category:1984 premieres Category:1988 endings